Conference Schedule

The Conference is taking shape in wonderful fashion and will offer a diverse and interesting curriculum.

[update: Sunday, October 11, 2015] Below, you will find the most current Conference Schedule and Description of events as of October 11, 2015. You may also click here for a pdf. version of the 11-page Schedule. However, when you the line-up, we are convinced that you will want to be part of the unfolding celebration. Come and be part of it!

There have been remarkably few changes since the Draft Schedule was uploaded to this site on September 5. Most notably, because Alexis Rotella will not be able to attend, Deborah Kolodji's "Understanding the Larger Pond: Haiku in the Mainstream Poetry Community" has been moved to 10:30 on Friday in Everest Lounge, and Michael Kennedy will be presenting "Future Poet" at 3:05 on Friday in Everest Lounge (see below). Ms. Rotella will, of course, no longer be on the Haiga Panel on Saturday morning. Also, as described below, a trolley is being provided at 4:15 on Friday from Old Chapel to bring participants to the Stockade Ginko with David Giacalone, and to return the ginko group at 6:45 to campus from the special HNA 2015 $12 dinner at Arthur's Market. Note: If the weather is inclement, the Trolley will provide us with a slow-driving-ginko through the Stockade.

“Realism Is Dead”Jim Kacian“Realism is a way a way of representing the realworld in artistic terms, and nominally the underpinningof haiku but the modern world has becomefar too abstract to portray in traditionalways. If haiku is no longer rooted in the realworld, what might ground it? Contemporaryhaiku must be able to account for equity derivatives,mass killing at a distance, the purchase ofpolitical power within a democracy, the discoveryof the Higgs boson, internet dating and muchmuch more that, for all their lack of “real world”causality, are essentially abstract transactions inthis context. Real cherry blossoms can be seen,paradoxically, as a retreat from the world ratherthan engagement with it.”

11:00 a.m. UNION OLD CHAPELto 11:45 a.m. Japanese Aesthetics and Junk HaikuLee Gurga“A presentation of the importance of the four Japaneseaesthetic principles of Ma, Kire, Kigo, and Kokoro inhaiku followed by an audience discussion that will revealtheir operation in some of today’s finest English-languagehaiku.”

11:00 a.m. UNION EVEREST LOUNGEto 11:45 a.m. Beyond Surprise: Haiku and the Poetics of George OppenPhilip Rowland“Few poets have shown as sincere and consistent a concernfor clarity as George Oppen. Like haiku, his poetryadapts Imagist principles, often finding the “miraculous”in the commonplace. But his search does not stop with the“aha” moment; skepticism underlies his faith in clarity,which must be “earned.” This paper arues for therelevance of his poetics to the development of haiku,beyond mere surprise or novelty.”

Noon to BUFFET LUNCH IN HALE HOUSE1:45 p.m.

2:00 p.m. UNION OLD CHAPELto 2:45 p.m. Why Haiku — A Personal ReflectionScott Mason“This presentation is a personal paean to haiku — thequalities, effects and potentialities that not only havecaptivated me as a reader and writer but also haveenriched my life. My remarks will be illustrated by aselection of other poets’ work from the newly releasedvolume Nest Feathers: Selected Haiku from the First 15Years of The Heron’s Nest.”

2:00 p.m. UNION EVEREST LOUNGEto 2:45 p.m. Autumn Term: Haiku in SchoolsDr. Shashi Angelee Deodhar“My interest in this field sparked two years ago when I wasinvolved in compiling an anthology of haibun, Journeysand again this year as I worked on Journeys 2015. I noticedthat only older people are writing in this genre. I feel it isimperative that we bring haibun into schools. Childrencan be taught to write haibun as easily as haiku. They havegreat powers of observation.”

3:00 p.m. UNION OLD CHAPELto 3:40 p.m. Branching Out: Groups within the haiku communityJennifer Sutherland“An exploration of the various benefits of group participationand workshopping within the haiku community.Poets who are already part of a group or interested ineither joining or establishing a local haiku group shouldbenefit from the presentation and discussion”

3:00 p.m. UNION EVEREST LOUNGEto 3:40 p.m. A Path of DesirePeter Newton, Kathe L. Palka“From July 2013 through August 2014, Perter Newton andKathe L. Palka wrote tan renga on a nearly daily basis viamail. 75 of the over 100 written during this collaborationare collected in their book titled A Path of Desire. A descriptionand reading will be followed by discussion.”

3:50 p.m. UNION OLD CHAPELto 4:40 p.m. A Woman’s Desire: The Lost Letters of Chiyo-niTerry Ann Carter, Marco Fraticelli“The performance will begin with a brief history ofChiyo-ni’s life and the place we feel that she deserves tohold in haiku history. This will be followed by a readingfrom ‘A Thousand Years.’ The reading of each of herletters will be followed by a mime performance based onan accompanying haiku by Chiyo-ni.”

3:50 p.m. UNION EVEREST LOUNGEto 4:40 p.m. HaikuWALL IndiaKala Ramesh“Kala Ramesh has been instrumental in bringing schoolkids and undergrads to haiku in India. Her latestobsession is to paint city walls with haiku written by herstudents, helping to weave a pause, a breather into hecticlives. This session revolves around a short, crisp filmcapturing haiku on WALLS.”

9:50 a.m. UNION EVEREST LOUNGEto 10:20 a.m. The Significance of Kukai in Elementary SchoolMakoto Nakanishi“Kukai is a haiku sharing circle where poets make, submit,select and appreciate haiku together. Even though thename of the poet receiving the most votes is revealed atthe end, the most interesting part of the kukai is theanonymity and equality in selecting and appreciatinghaiku throughout the process. I will focus on thesignificance of haiku in education.”

10:30 a.m. UNION EMERSON AUDITORIUMto 11:30 p.m. Haiku Chronicles: Learning Through Multimedia and the PodcastDonna Beaver, Alan Pizzarelli“Haiku Chronicles producers and hosts, Donna Beaverand Alan Pizzarelli share their podcast ventures and howtheir podcasts are used as a tool for informal learning andsharing of haiku and related poetic forms. They will offer abrief history of podcasting, describe their own discover ofpodcasting, and explain how and why they do it. ”

10:30 a.m. UNION EVEREST LOUNGEto 11:30 p.m. Understanding the Larger Pond: Haiku in the Mainstream Poetry CommunityDeborah P. Kolodji“Haiku has been appearing more frequently in themainstream, from President Obama’s ‘haiku’ to the‘Japanese Forms’ issue of Rattle. How is haikuperceived outside of the haiku community? Whatcan we do to change it?”

11:45 a.m. to BUFFET LUNCH IN HALE HOUSE1:45 p.m.

1:50 p.m. UNION EMERSON AUDITORIUMto 2:50 p.m. A Rengay WorkshopGarry Gay“This workshop will introduce you to the collaborativelinking form called “rengay.” It will be taught by itscreator, Garry Gay. This one hour workshop will give youa brief introduction to its history and how to write a twoor three person rengay. It’s an enjoyable experience andwe will be writing together. If you can write haiku, youcan write rengay.”

Melissa Allen“Haibun is a linked form, requiring a subtle and sometimesdifficult-to-achieve connection between prose andhaiku. In this workshop we’ll first examine some haibunand discuss different kinds of linking. Then we’ll do afree-writing exercise to limber up our associative powersand finally try our hand at writing some prose linked to anexisting haiku. Please bring a haiku that you havepreviously written (even five minutes previously!).”

3:05 p.m. UNION OLD CHAPELto 4:05 p.m. Our Frogpond Term: Searching for LIFE in Haiku SubmissionsFrancine Banwarth, Michele Root-Bernstein“Banwarth and Root-Bernstein reflect on Frogpond’sremit under their leadership: to provide a forum for thebest work and the best promise in contemporary haikufrom seasoned, novice and pioneering poets alike; toselect haiku with LIFE—the language, image, form andelusiveness that deliver freshness; to enable poetictransition from personal meaning to public contribution.Participants will have an opportunity to submit poemsbeforehand, some of which will be selected for feedbackand reflection.”

3:05 p.m. UNION EVEREST LOUNGEto 4:05 p.m. Future Poet Michael Kennedy“This workshop will use psychodramatic action methods to allow participants the opportunity to hear from their "future writer selves" and identify a key action necessary for their individual growth as a poet.”

4:15 p.m. UNION OLD CHAPELto 5:15 p.m. Appropriating NaturePaul Miller“There is a tension in traditional haiku between the desireto write of things just as they are and the reality of poetryin which objects are manipulated for effect. Using ideasfrom ecocriticism this talk will investigate the intersectionof nature and haiku poetics. This paper will look at nonnaturalnature (kigo system), emotional painting (haiku’stwo part structure), and nature as product (activism,nostalgia).”

4:15 p.m. HISTORIC STOCKADE DISTRICTthrough GinkoDinner Break David Giacalone“A ginko walk through the Historic Stockade Neighborhood (or a StockadeGinko Ride on a Union College Trolley, if the weather is too inclement for walking). Led by long-time resident David Giacalone, the ginkowill leave from Old Chapel at 4:15 p.m. by Trolley for a short driveto the Stockade District, and then a walk around the neighborhoodand its tranquil Riverside Park, along the Mohawk River. Aresidential neighborhood since the 1690s, the Stockade has thehighest concentration of historic period homes in the country.Three centuries of history, and lore (including a massacre and majorfires) will give us much to write about when we arrive at historic Arthur’sMarket cafe for haiku (and senryu) and victuals. Arthur’s will prepare a specialdinner for the Ginko group, with a choice of vegetarian teriyaki with tofu and rice,or Lasagna (with meat and cheese) and salad, plus dessert, for $12). Learnmore about the Stockade at http://tinyurl.com/HNAStockade. [Architecturebuffs can take a photo tour in advance at http://stockade.toursphere.com/en/index.html]

EXPLORE DINNER OPTIONS IN SCHENECTADY OR IN REAMERCAMPUS CENTER (suggested)

8:15 p.m. UNION OLD CHAPELto 9:00 p.m. “Fire in the Treetops” HNA Anthology ReadingMichael Dylan Welch“Not only HNA 2015 but the full quarter century of HNAconferences will be celebrated with this reading.”

9:15 p.m. Buses Depart from Old Chapel to The Desmond

Saturday Oct. 17

8:15 a.m. Buses depart from The Desmond for Union College(Coffee and muffins in Hale House)

NOTE: Today is your last chance to visit the Book Fair and Haiga Exhibit in the Nott Memorialand to place your bids in the Silent Auction at Hale House (bidding ends 4:50 p.m.)!

10:00 a.m. UNION OLD CHAPELto 10:30 a.m. The Aesthetic Value of Understatement in HaikuSusan Antolin“Making a case for moving away from a reliance onJapanese vocabulary in discussing haiku aesthetics, thispaper focuses on one aesthetic value, the art of understatement,as an indispensable quality to both traditionaland contemporary haiku.”

10:00 a.m. UNION EVEREST LOUNGEto 10:30 a.m. The Yuki Teikei Haiku Society - A Unique Introduction of Haiku to North AmericaPatrick Gallagher“The knowledge of the art of haiku poetry has traveledmany paths to North America. Forty years ago a uniqueintroduction of haiku was fostered by a Japaneseimmigrant couple who wanted to teach their Americanfriends the joy of the haiku life. Through its origin withstrong emphasis on Japanese haiku traditions and throughcontinual interchange with Japanese haiku poets theSociety they founded continues to emphasize and enjoyclassical haiku principles and celebrations.”

10:45 a.m. UNION OLD CHAPELto 11:15 a.m. The Cicada’s Voice: How the Wabi-Sabi Aesthetic Can Teach Us How to LiveMary Stevens“Wabi sabi, found in a variety of Japanese art forms, refersto the lonely beauty of incomplete, imperfect, or impermanentthings. Come hear traditional Japanese and modernEnglish-language haiku and tanka from the 9th to 21stcenturies and view artworks capturing this aesthetic,including photographs by Tom Clausen.”

10:45 a.m. UNION EVEREST LOUNGEto 11:15 a.m. Renku for FunJohn Stevenson“One of the best pieces of advice I ever received aboutleading a renku session came from Masahisa (Shinku)Fukuda. He said, ‘First, it has to be fun.’ The collaborationbetween poets that is the heart of renku can be extremelycomplex and challenging. There are a lot of rules andtraditions. Poets first encountering renku can easilybecome overwhelmed and discouraged. But it doesn’thave to be that way. While all are invited to this session,a special invitation is extended to those who are newor relatively new to renku.”

11:30 a.m. UNION EVEREST LOUNGEto Noon The Vertical Axis in HaibunBeverly Acuff Momoi“Why do some haibun stay with you long after readingthem? What gives a haibun resonance over time, cultureand geographical distance? What can today’s writers bringto the form that builds on the foundation of Basho indistinctively 21st century ways? This presentation willexamine how successful contemporary haibun operate ontwo axes, as Haruo Shirane suggested, and will discussstrategies for writing haibun that have a strong and deepvertical axis.”

12:15 to BUFFET LUNCH IN HALE HOUSE1:45 p.m.

2:00 p.m. UNION OLD CHAPELto 2:30 p.m. From Free Verse to HaibunPenny Harter“Penny Harter will read a number of new haibun that sherecast/revised from fifteen original free-verse poems,along with selected haibun written this year.”

2:00 p.m. UNION EVEREST LOUNGEto 2:30 p.m. Haiku in Education: Literary HaibunClaudia Coutu Radmore“We will discover a new form by using the traditionalform of haibun, with an emphasis on how to create theprose part of the haibun from someone else’s writing,and how to make the haiku part interesting as well asunpredictable. We’ll learn how writing haibun from suchsources can enrich the experience of the original workboth for the haibun writer and for readers. Participantscan write and perhaps share a ‘little literary haibun’ oftheir own.”

2:45 p.m. UNION OLD CHAPELto 3:30 p.m. Translating ShikiCharles Trumbull“Of the classic Japanese haiku masters, Masaoka Shiki isthe least translated-and, it might be argued-the least welltranslated. Through a careful examination and comparisonof the approximately 1,950 translations intoEnglish and other Western languages of Shiki’s 29,000haiku, we will suggest some reasons why the poetic workof Shiki, perhaps the most influential theoretician ofhaiku, is so poorly represented in the West.”

3:45 p.m. NOTT MEMORIALHNA 2015 Group PhotographWe will gather on one of the sets of stepsleading to the Nott Memorial. PhotographerGarry Gay will determine which offers thebest lighting. Please be on time.

9:00 a.m. THE DESMOND - THE LODGEto 10:00 a.m. Dream Haiku WorkshopKathabela Wilson“This is a workshop I recently tested at our SO CAHaiku Study Group. It is an hour long focus onthe expanse of time—when we sleep, rest, nap--and how it can be used for haiku. It includes two‘napping’ (rest, relaxing) sessions. Rick (Wilson)plays soft shakuhachi or desert flute accompaniments,that move into writing sessions. Poems to be sharedas time permits and poets are willing.”